1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that allow a computer user to interact with a computer. In particular the invention provides the user with the ability to customize the GUI to best meet the user's needs.
2. Background
A graphical user interface allows a user to interact with a computer by pointing at selectable control areas on the computer display and activating a command or computer operation associated with the selectable control area to cause the computer to perform an operation. Computer applications have a plethora of user selectable operations that comprise a set of features for the application. These operations are presented to the user by the GUI. The user moves a cursor, responsive to a pointing device, over a selectable control area (SCA) on the display. Then the user activates the pointing device to invoke the operation associated with the SCA. The SCA can be indicated on the display by the use of an icon, a menu, a popup, a toolbar (a selection of icons grouped together) or other similar controls. When the computer application supports a large set of features, the number of SCAs, associated with the features, becomes unwieldy. With a large number of SCAs, the user often forgets what operation is represented by the icon or forgets which menu is used to invoke the operation and thus is less efficient when using the application.
Complex GUIs are common in the problem domain of network management. Often different network administrators are responsible for different devices and functions on the network. The network generally consists of multiple types of computers (or other network devices) with different operating systems and capabilities. Generalized network management applications traditionally have been written for specific computer/operating system configurations. Java allows a single application to run on multiple computer/operating system configurations (often in a client/server configuration) to provide network management capabilities without needing to customize the application for each computer/operating system configuration. However, generalized network management applications tend to make the GUI more complex and confusing to the user.
Application "wizard" capabilities have long been used to generate document templates. Many commercially available products provide a wizard to lead a user through an interrogatory session to generate a document template such as a pre-formatted letter, spreadsheet or software program. In addition, many applications allow the user to manually select GUI related facilities. One example of this is the selection of functions and icons that are included in a toolbar displayed to the user. Selecting the functions which can be accessed through a toolbar is difficult because the user must know that the desired functions exist and know how to select them.
It would be advantageous to allow the user of rich functionality computer applications (such as network management applications) to be guided through a GUI customization process that generates a GUI tailored to the user's needs with respect to a particular problem domain.